Into thin air: DNC visitors may huff, puff

Amid 17 percent less oxygen, some could gasp, but most won't get altitude sickness.

Dr. Jenny Hargrove of the Institute for Altitude Medicine in Telluride uses an ultrasound machine to look at Montrose resident John Warning's heart. Denver visitors with cardiopulmonary problems or oxygen-sapping diseases might have more cause for concern about mountain sickness.
(William Woody, Special to The Denver Post )

What promises to be red, white and blue — and short on O2?

That would be Denver as host city for the Democratic National Convention.

The Mile High City has 17 percent less oxygen than at sea level. Consequently, many conventioneers are likely to notice a shortness of breath. A few may suffer, for reasons researchers still don't quite understand, throbbing headaches. A fraction might get hit with what can feel like a no-booze hangover — headaches along with nausea and lethargy.

But visitors and residents alike should know that Colorado's thin air, although a nuisance for the unacclimated, also is the impetus for some of the world's most advanced research on the good and bad effects of stingy oxygen levels.

Both of North America's only high-altitude-devoted medical clinics are in this state, where at least 600,000 people live at 7,000 feet or more above sea level. So is a high-altitude training center for Olympic athletes, as well as a slew of university research projects on lowered oxygen and a business that is the planet's only large manufacturer of simulated altitude devices for athletes and the affluent.

"Knowledge about prevention and treatment is coming along quite nicely here," said Dr. Peter Hackett, who has studied high-altitude medicine from the top of Mount Everest to the basement of the Telluride Medical Center for 33 years.

Hackett serves as medical director at the Institute for Altitude Medicine, located at 9,000- and 10,000-foot altitudes in Telluride and its higher neighbor, the Mountain Village.

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Hackett also is head of clinical services for the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine's Altitude Research Center at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.

The Aurora altitude center is a gleaming new complex where much of the top research on what often is called simply "mountain sickness" takes place.

Bovine brisket disease

Under the direction of another high-altitude heavyweight, Dr. Ben Honigman, researchers here are delving into the genetics that make some people less adaptable to an increase in altitude. They are cataloging the way brains change and swell in higher altitudes, why in some pockets of high-altitude babies are born skinnier, how athletes can use thin air as a powerful training tool and why Colorado's leanest-state-in-the-nation ranking might have something to do with hypoxia — lowered oxygen in the body — as well as active lifestyles.

The Institute for Altitude Medicine, with 28 percent less oxygen than at sea level, is a much more modest clinic but important because of its location. Nearly half of all visitors to the Mountain Village report headaches, so it's a perfect spot to study and treat mountain-sickness sufferers, help athletes with training and evaluate those who want to live at high altitude but fear they may get sick.

Cutting-edge research projects on oxygen deprivation also are going on at Colorado State University and the University of Colorado campus in Colorado Springs.

At CSU, hypoxic rats' brains are studied for a better general understanding of the part low oxygen plays in a number of diseases.

CSU also is home to a study of cattle and their particular high-altitude problems. Cattle can suffer from brisket disease, so called because the front part of the cow that yields brisket can fill up with fluid at high altitudes. Susceptible cattle can now be identified and sent to graze in a more appropriate place, such as Nebraska.

Meanwhile, athletes can be brought from lowlands to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where working out in thinner air multiplies their red blood cells and revs up their metabolism.

Honigman and Hackett said there probably are no athletes competing in aerobic sports in the Olympic Games who haven't trained at high altitude, either real or simulated.

The Colorado Altitude Training Equipment company in Louisville helps with the latter by making training-aid tents for high-caliber athletes like cyclist Lance Armstrong, soccer star David Beckham and basketball legend Shaquille O'Neil. Athletes sleep in the room-sized tents, where the oxygen levels are cranked down like they would be at high-altitude.

The company is branching out in the opposite direction into increased-oxygen rooms for mountain mansions. These rooms are the ultra comfort device for those who might come from sea level to their second home at 9,000 feet and don't want to waste any time acclimating.

Appetite suppression

Simulated hypoxia tents for weight loss are next on the horizon.

"There is an appetite-suppression trigger with altitude. It's one of the most documented effects of high altitude," said Steve Kutt, president of Colorado Altitude Training Equipment.

Kutt said his company plans to begin selling weight-loss tents in Europe next year and in the United States whenever it receives the Food and Drug Administration's approval. The overweight will sleep in them as the air is gradually increased to a simulated altitude of about 14,000 feet.

In spite of all of these advances, what is still bedeviling researchers is the exact cause of the most mild form of mountain sickness — the kind most likely to bug convention-goers.

"We still don't know exactly why people get headaches at high altitude," Hackett said.

The current best guess is that when cerebral blood flow increases as the brain's blood vessels dilate in an attempt to get more oxygen, that dilation may bring on the pain.

In the worst cases, and mainly at altitudes of 10,000 feet or more, a very small percentage go on to develop life-threatening cerebral edema — what Hackett has described as "leaky brain" — or fluid in the lungs.

Visitors to Denver who might have a little more cause for concern about mountain sickness include those with cardiopulmonary problems or oxygen-sapping diseases, such as sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis. Smokers and the obese also are more likely to have problems.

On the other hand, physical fitness is no help in avoiding mountain sickness, and younger people are more prone to get it than the elderly. Surprisingly, some asthmatics tend to do better at altitude.

Hackett likens mountain sickness to seasickness. Some people get it, some don't. And research has yielded preventative measures for those who do.

The herb Ginkgo biloba has been shown to be effective in some people. Why isn't known. Researchers speculate its antioxidant properties counteract tissue damage from low oxygen.

Viagra boosts muscle oxygen

Erectile-disfunction drugs such as Viagra and Cialis help those going to very high altitudes by relaxing blood vessels and increasing the amount of oxygen to muscles. The prescription drug acetazolamide stimulates ventilation and improves breathing that can be interrupted at altitude during sleep. It is usually taken in small doses as a preventative but has some side effects, such as tingling fingers and an unpleasantly altered taste for beer and soda pop.

Researchers stress that most Denver visitors will need to do nothing more than stay hydrated, avoid a 10-mile run the first day, hold off on imbibing much for the first 24 hours and not worry about shortness of breath when climbing stairs or racing for a taxi.

In fact, Honigman said, conventioneers can save their worries for party platforms and caucus wrangling. And the ills of real hangovers.

"It's very unlikely many will feel (altitude) problems," Honigman said. "If the convention was in Vail or Aspen, it would be a different story."

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